Beyond physical injuries, survivors of car accidents often suffer from emotional and psychological trauma that can have significant negative impacts on their lives. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other emotional damages are common consequences of surviving a bad wreck.
If you or a loved one has suffered emotionally after an auto accident that was caused by another driver’s negligence, you may be entitled to compensation for those damages. Understanding your legal rights and the process for recovering damages can help you get the assistance and justice you deserve.
What Qualifies as Emotional Trauma After a Car Accident?
Experiencing a traumatic event like a serious car crash often causes intense emotional and psychological distress. Some common emotional injuries after a bad wreck include:
- Acute stress disorder – Characterized by anxiety, dissociation, reexperiencing the trauma, avoidance behaviors, and difficulty functioning. Lasts less than a month.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) – Severe, long-lasting emotional reaction to trauma involving intrusive memories, hypervigilance, emotional numbing, and more.
- Depression and anxiety disorders
- Phobias – Such as fear of driving or riding in vehicles.
- Panic attacks
- Difficulty sleeping and nightmares
- Loss of appetite
- Problems with interpersonal relationships
- Difficulty focusing and lack of motivation
- Feeling detached, guilty, or emotionally numb
- Worrying excessively
- Mood swings and irritability
These emotional damages can range from mild to completely debilitating. Even after physical injuries have healed, emotional trauma can have serious and long-lasting impacts on car accident survivors’ mental health and quality of life.
Factors That Increase Risk of Emotional Injuries
Certain factors can put car accident victims at higher risk of suffering psychological trauma and lasting emotional damages:
- Preexisting mental health conditions – A prior history of anxiety, depression, or PTSD increases vulnerability.
- Head injuries or coma – Traumatic brain injuries can make emotional trauma more likely.
- Young age – Children and teens are at higher risk of emotional damages.
- Perceived threat of death or injury during the wreck – The more life-threatening the accident seemed, the greater the potential trauma.
- Lengthy hospitalization or medical procedures – The more severe the injuries and recovery process, the higher the emotional toll.
- Loss of a loved one in the crash – Coping with grief compounds psychological impacts.
Seeking medical attention promptly not only helps address physical injuries, but also creates a record of emotional trauma from the start, which can help prove emotional damages.
The Effects of PTSD After a Car Accident
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most severe emotional damages accident victims may develop. PTSD can occur after any harrowing ordeal and is common after catastrophic crashes.
Some key signs and effects of PTSD include:
- Vivid flashbacks to the accident
- Nightmares
- Being hypervigilant and startling easily
- Avoiding reminders of the accident
- Detachment from people and activities
- Difficulty feeling emotions like happiness
- Problems with memory and concentration
- Irritability, anger outbursts, and difficulty sleeping
- Feeling tense, nervous, excessively worried, or depressed
- Loss of interest in usual activities
- Emotional numbness
- Self-destructive behaviors like drug use
For a PTSD diagnosis, symptoms must last for at least a month and severely impair normal functioning. Without effective treatment, PTSD can be long-lasting and can significantly reduce quality of life. Car accident victims dealing with PTSD often cannot work, have trouble in relationships, and stop engaging in activities they previously enjoyed.
Recovering Damages for Emotional Distress After an Accident
If negligent actions like distracted driving or drunk driving caused the auto accident that resulted in emotional harm, the at-fault driver has a legal obligation to compensate accident victims for those damages. This can include both the emotional trauma itself and impacts like lost income if emotional damages prevent you from working.
Compensation is obtained through an insurance claim or personal injury lawsuit. The at-fault driver’s liability insurance policy should cover emotional distress claims up to the policy limits. For severe trauma or major losses, filing a lawsuit allows you to recover additional compensation above insurance limits.
To successfully recover emotional distress damages, an experienced personal injury attorney can help establish:
- The at-fault driver’s clear liability through evidence like police reports, witness statements, video footage and more
- Proof you suffered psychological trauma like PTSD or anxiety disorder through testimony from mental health professionals, medical records, and counseling history
- Evidence of how emotional trauma impacted your life, relationships, and ability to work
- Expert testimony from a psychiatrist or therapist to quantify the severity of emotional damages
- Documentation of any treatment expenses already incurred and estimated future treatment costs
Thorough evidence and skillful negotiation can help obtain a settlement or court award that provides meaningful compensation for emotional suffering.
Getting Treatment and Support for Emotional Trauma
Living with PTSD, anxiety, depression or other emotional fallout from an accident takes a heavy toll. Getting professional treatment and support is critical to help you recover.
A personal injury settlement or award can pay for counseling, psychiatric care, prescription medications, and other treatments to help overcome psychological trauma. Consider these therapy options:
- Individual counseling with a licensed therapist. Talk therapy helps process trauma.
- Group therapy with other trauma victims provides support.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy teaches coping strategies for anxiety and PTSD.
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) helps reduce distress from traumatic memories.
- Meditations like yoga and mindfulness help relieve anxiety and depression.
- Support groups connect you with other accident survivors.
- Medications like antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs help manage symptoms.
Ongoing therapy and treatment tailored to your emotional damages can make the difference in recovering from trauma. Though the road to healing can be long, with professional help there is hope for overcoming emotional injuries.
Our Firm Can Help After a Traumatic Accident
Recovering compensation for psychological trauma is often complex, but vital for car accident survivors’ recovery and financial stability. The compassionate attorneys at Scarlett Law Group have extensive experience helping those harmed in motor vehicle crashes to get full and fair compensation for all their losses – physical, emotional, and financial.
If you or someone you love has suffered emotional trauma like PTSD after an auto accident caused by a negligent driver, contact us for a free consultation. We will evaluate your case at no charge and advise you on the best legal options. Our dedicated legal team will work closely with you to pursue maximum compensation for emotional distress so you can heal, rebuild your life, and cover costs.
Visit our office at 536 Pacific Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94133.
Or call now for a free consultation on (415) 352-6264.